Equality and Diversity - Protected Characteristics
Promoting the Nine Protected Characteristics at St George's
At St George's Church of England we welcome our duties under the Equality Act 2010. The Equality Act became law in 2010. It covers everyone in Britain and protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
The Equality Act protects people against discrimination because of the protected characteristics that we all have. Under the Equality Act there are nine protected characteristics.
We will not discriminate against, harass or victimise any pupil, prospective pupil, or other member of the school community because of their:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender Re-assignment
- Race - including colour, nationality, ethnicity, or national origin
- Religion or Belief
- Marriage or Civil Partnership
- Sex
- Sexual Orientation
- Pregnancy or Maternity
No form of discrimination is tolerated at St George's Church of England Academy and our pupils show respected for those who share the protected characteristics. We aim to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development, with special emphasis on promoting equality, diversity and eradicating prejudicial incidents for pupils and staff. Our school is committed to not only eliminating discrimination, but also increasing understanding and appreciation for diversity.
We do not teach about all the protected characteristics in evert year group. The curriculum is planned and delivered so that out pupils develop age appropriate knowledge and understanding during their time at St George's.
Quality Texts that Promote Protected Characteristic
As part of our PSHE/RSHE curriculum, we enhance our 1 Decision curriculum by including a scheme called No Outsiders. This scheme was created by Andrew Moffat MBE, who was nominated for the Global Teacher Prize in 2018-19. No Outsiders has three core values:
- Respect for diversity through education in schools;
- Commitment to community cohesion through understanding and acceptance of difference;
- Promotion of dialogue to counter fear and hate in society.
No Outsiders is a scheme that was introduced at our School in 2023 -2024 and it involves the use of age appropriate story books (see below for a list of the books we use) to teach about seven of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010. These include:
- age;
- disability;
- gender reassignment;
- race;
- religion or belief;
- gender;
- sexual orientation.
It is important we create a school culture in which children, staff and the whole school community work together to foster an environment of inclusivity through effective spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) and character education.
We believe that it is vital that our pupils can discuss inappropriate and discriminative language and understand how to address boundaries in order to prepare them for a future in modern Britain.
We strive to ensure that our pupils are surrounded by a consistent message:
- There are no outsiders here;
- Everyone is different;
- We like being different;
- We are all equal in our difference;
- I can get along with you even if we are different;
- We live in the U.K., our British values support this and the law says this too.
We work alongside our families, parents and carers to deliver this message of inclusivity. You are very welcome to call in to see your child’s class teacher or Mrs Taylor, our PSHE/RSHE Lead, to discuss this approach and to view the picture books we use for this.
At St George's Church of England Academy, there are no outsiders – Everyone is welcome!
